Stone Skull Island

Ahoy there, mateys, welcome to the Stone Skull island! Here, all yer dreams and wishes can come true, though ye must forfeit yer gold, yer soul an’ yer travel sickness tablets. Argh, here be vomit on me trainers!

Okay, I’m not a very good pirate. Sea-sickness, soft hands and burning hatred of seagulls make me a pretty sub-par Jack Tar. Turns out that the only good thing to come of this otherwise horrendous seafaring escapade was my tour of Stone Skull Island, a hub for multiplayer Minecraft servers. It’s beautiful, mystical and I can feel my soul slowly seeping out of my body every time I gaze foolishly into the hollow sockets of the skulls’ eyes.

It’s basically everything you’re looking for in a holiday island getaway.

While the build may make you think of ancient pirate myths and sinister seafaring tales, ByMrCraft’s inspirations were visual - pulling ideas from illustration and observation of the natural landscape. That was as important a part of the design as the buildings themselves: without the rocks, birds and trees, the architecture itself wouldn’t make sense, he says.

The skulls were a late addition, an attempt to further differentiate the build and add an extra, immediately striking feature. “The same with the birds,” says ByMrCraft, “which were added to the finalised structure to give colour and create a more mysterious environment.”

Of course, being a multiplayer hub, loads of people can enjoy the island of madness simultaneously - an important consideration for ByMrCraft. “Most of my constructions are built for multiplayer mode, so others can enjoy them,” ByMrCraft tells me. “I think the aesthetics of a server is one of the most important things for the players to enjoy.”